Autonomous Art

Today I happened across a piece of art that pretty much addresses the issues I was raving about yesterday, Ward Shelly's Autonomous Art.

Ward's graphic of the evolution of the Art World lays it out pretty succinctly. The upper thread forms a bubble, "the rarefied aesthetic realm", through which runs "control of the means of recognition, distribution, and valuation". The lower thread runs through "economic growth" to the "culture product" and into "happiness becomes a consumer product". The diagram makes implies these two threads are merged or merging, but doesn't really make it clear. The final notation on the top says "assuming a critical pos(e)ition but absolutely dependent on capital/industrial economy", which points to a note on the bottom "what happens when the economy tanks--?"

Also, there's this interesting little arrow off the Internet labeled "out?"

Wards work is pretty awesome. Definitely check out his History of Science Fiction. I guess the point is that art is always changing. I'm not going to seat it to much trying to keep up with the "Art World."